Happy Ever After
by kara.mellark135
Summary: The story of Katniss and Peeta after the war and how they come back together and fall in love!:D This is my first story so please review, I would love to hear anything that could help my writing!
1. Chapter 1

As I look up into the beautiful green meadow I allow myself to smile. This is the only happy place, the only beautiful place left in his broken down, desolate district. Apart from the woods, but I haven't brought myself to go back into my safe haven since I got back. Too many memories that could be brought up from venturing into the dark green land that somehow now seems unfamiliar to me without my hunting partner Gale. The war destroyed everything. Even thinking about it now brings tears to my eyes. The thousands of lives lost, all because of me. All because of one handful of berries. As I stare into the forest I see a cluster of them now. The round, dark, purple, fruit that tore my life apart.

I think of the friends and family I lost. Finnick, Cinna, Rue, Mags, Wiress, Madge and her family and most of my team who helped invade the Capitol. But the only death I can't get over. The only loss I'm crippled by, is that of my sister. Prim. The scene of her death haunts me every night. How her lips formed my name just as she realises it's all going to be ok. I'm coming to save her. Then the parachute goes off and my beautiful, kind sister goes up in flames. Tongues of fire leap up scarring her sweet face and leaving her dead.

The only thing I have to live for now is Peeta. I can't leave him alone to suffer like I do. He is so good, so pure. He didn't deserve to be punished in such a way that his life was destroyed. He still isn't the same Peeta, that fell in love with me. But there are moments sometimes where I think I can see the old him, a reminder of that day we spent on the training centre roof. Or those days before the Quell announcement. Or those nights on the train. We help each other. We play the real or not real game. It feels good to be near Peeta again. To hear his laugh or to watch him bake. He invited me over to his house a few days ago to show me his paintings and just like that night on the train before the Quell, I was disgusted. He had painted the war, just like he had the games. The lizard mutts creeping along the sewer, gaping mouths and pointed claws dripping with blood. The rubble flying everywhere as the shining, razor sharp teeth of the meat grinder activate. Women and children lying dead in the streets of the bombed districts. They were horrible and just like before, I hated them but the way they had been painted was definitely something to be admired. It was so amazing see, the way he had to captured a moment just by using paint and his own memory.

I got up and walked back to my house in Victors Village. The only place I could call 'home' after the war because my family's old shack in the seam had been destroyed in the bombing of twelve. Peeta was waiting at the door for me with a fresh batch of cheese buns.

"You been out in the meadow again?" he asks, as he hands me them.

"Yeah, just to think. Thanks for these, I was just about to run out." I say gratefully.

"It's no problem" he says with a smile. "It keeps me distracted from…well you know."

He was right. I did know. The way that two trips to the games and being in a war never left you. Even the simplest of things can remind you of a life you took or a life lost.

"Would you like to come in?" I ask. Being around Peeta makes me happy and I could use a cheering up after reminiscing all day long. He accepts my offer and I boil some water to make coffee while Peeta sits down.

"I was at Haymitch's house this morning and he showed me a few videos from our first Hunger Games and the Quell, and I wanted to ask you some questions?" he says cautiously.

I agree reluctantly. I knew this conversation would come one day and I can't say I was looking forward to it.

"Ok" he thinks for a second. "During the first games you pretended to like me just so we could get food. Real or not real?"

"Real." I say reluctantly. Seeing the shock register on his face I try to explain myself. "We were starving and we were going to die if we didn't get food soon and you were so weak, so sick. I knew there was only one way to get food so I created a moment between us to get sponsors" he looks down, staring at the floor. "But I never did it to hurt you, I promise." We sit in silence, me ashamed for being such a horrible person and I guess he was just as disgusted with me as I was with myself. Then Peeta erupts.

"YOU'RE A MUTT! YOU NEVER LOVED ME! IT WAS ALL FOR THE GAMES! WHAT DID I EVER DO TO YOU?!" he shouts while backing away from me with a terrified look on his face. Then he whispers "You're going to kill me, aren't you? Just like you killed my family. Just liked you killed all my friends."

"No Peeta! I would never try to hurt you! Not ever! I didn't kill your family and friends! The Capitol did! This is the venom talking! They hijacked you Peeta! Snow hijacked you! Don't you see? I would never try to kill you!" I try to calm him down but it doesn't seem to be working.

I walk to towards him. He stands with his back to the wall, paralysed with fear. I step closer to him, enough to feel his sharp, quick breaths on my cheek. I reach up and stroke his face, looking in to his beautiful azure blue eyes, he turns away. Then returns my gaze, just as he slaps me across the face. Pushing me away from him, sending me flying back onto the couch. He runs from the room.

All I can think is; it's all my fault, I'm the reason they hijacked him. I wish I was dead. I wish he was dead because I'd rather that than have Peeta hate me and be hurting himself.


	2. Chapter 2

Days pass and there is no contact between Peeta and I. I wish I could just go and see him but I don't know what I'd say to make him understand that it's not his fault. I need to clear my head so I decide it is finally time to go into the woods again to see if I can seek out any sort of answers.

I walk over the old chain link fence that's been dead since the night of the bombing, when Gale and the residents of twelve tore it down to escape the fires. The woods are no longer warm and welcoming to me but eerie and cold. I walk around for a while and I finally find the familiar spot when Gale and I would meet. Just looking around here rips me apart. To think of the hours we spent here. Laughing, talking, and ranting about the Capitol and their despicable ways. It makes me sad to think about Gale. To know that it was his bomb that killed my little sister. The memories get too much so I decide to go on and I look for some food to gather. I find the pond where my father first showed me the Katniss tubers and how to collect them. As I gather them now I hear the whistle of a mockingjay through the trees. Memories of Rue hit me like a ton of bricks. I whistle the four note tune she taught me in my first games and a choir of these wonderful birds start to sing. As soon as I do I realise this was a bad idea. I curl up in a ball just like when the jabberjays started their deadly chorus in the Quarter Quell. When they finally stop singing I force myself to get up and I start the half an hour walk back to the meadow. I've had enough for today.

Just as I come to the edge of the meadow I see the bright yellow flower, that after today's events just makes me worse than I already am. I reach down and pluck it from the grass and walk back into town with silent tears trickling down my face. I run into Greasy Sae on the way back to the house and not wanting to have a conversation I run away quickly. I turn the corner going into Victors Village while wiping tears from my eyes and BAM. I run right into Peeta knocking us both over and dropping my beautiful primrose.

Seeing I'm upset Peeta takes me back to the house and carries me upstairs to my room. I burst into floods of tears and telling him everything about the trip to the woods. He just holds me and doesn't bother to tell me "it will all be ok" because he knows it won't? I know it won't. We're both damaged beyond repair and there is no denying it. That's why when I start to think about all the things we've been through together I'm glad it's Peeta who is here with me instead of my mother or Gale. Because they would never be able to understand what it is like to be scarred by your past like Peeta and I are. The games change you in a way you would never expect. No one who comes out alive is the same as when they went in. And nothing can change that.

Eventually when I'm cried out I drift off in the comfort of Peeta's arms, having a peaceful sleep for once. I wake up the next morning embarrassed for my breakdown. I shouldn't have let him see me like that. He has enough problems to deal with.

"Do you want some breakfast?" he asks.

I politely decline and go for a shower. When I go down to the front room he is still there.

"Are you going to be ok by yourself Katniss?" I don't really know how to answer.

"Peeta, when was the last time either of us was ok?" I reply sarcastically.

"I suppose your right." We sit in silence for a few minutes. "I want to be here for you Katniss. You're a mess and I don't want you to do anything stupid, because if you did I wouldn't be able to live with myself knowing that I was aware you were feeling this way."

He is starting to sound like the old Peeta again. Where did this come from? Even so, I'm still annoyed that he thinks I'm pathetic enough to take my own life. Believe me, I've considered it but the thought of all those people who died for me's efforts going to waste put me off the thought.

"I'm not going to do anything stupid Peeta. Can you please just go. I don't want to talk about this." I know I shouldn't treat him this way after he was so kind to me last night but I'm not in the mood to talk it all through again.

"Sorry Katniss but I'm staying right here." He gets a sketch pad out of his bag and starts to draw.

He's trying to be helpful but it is going more towards annoying now. I decide to let him do what he wants so I go upstairs to read while he sketches. He can sit there all day if he likes but I'm not going to go down just to entertain him.

He does sit there all day and eventually falls asleep on the couch. Seeing he has given up, I go to bed too. Only to be woken up by the same horrible nightmare that visits me every night since Prims death. I wake up screaming for her to run and I find Peeta's warm arms there to rock me back to sleep. Just before I fall asleep I look over to the window ledge in the corner of the room and see the sunny yellow primrose in a glass all on its own. It's then when I decide to give Peeta a chance.


	3. Chapter 3

Over the next few weeks, things are better. Peeta hasn't spent the night in his own house since my episode. He comes and goes during the day just as I do but he seems too scared to leave me alone during the night. The nightmares still come but they are not as frequent and when they do come I wake up to Peeta's warm arms holding me tightly, letting me know that I'm not alone. His nightmares seem to calm down as well. He doesn't scream like I do but he thrashes around, kicking and waving his arms, moaning.

One night when both our nightmares are particularly bad and can't sleep, he says to me: "We're better together, aren't we?"

"What do you mean?" I reply.

"Well ever since that night when you got really upset, you been happier. I can tell. I've definitely been." His smile beams down at me. "I'm starting to feel as if, I'm maybe getting a little better. A few nights ago I had dream, about us. A good dream. We were up on the training centre roof and I was playing with your hair and we watched the sun set."

Astounded, I reply. "Peeta! That wasn't a dream! That was a memory! You are getting better!"

"Doctor Aurelius told me the last time I spoke with him that familiar experiences could bring back my memories. It must be spending all this time with you that is making me better." He exclaims.

In that moment I think of something that might help Peeta even more. But it could possibly give him the wrong idea about what is going on between us. So I dismiss the thought but just as I do, the idea seems to have came to Peeta.

"I just want to try something. For experimental purposes?" he says warily.

"If you think it would help?" I reply.

He leans in and kisses me. It's the happiest I've felt in months, since that night on the beach. The hunger that was there before comes over me again. I realise how much I actually have missed Peeta, his comforting presence. Surely this will make him remember?

He stops and moves away. I say "Well? Anything?"

"Nope but the memories don't come straight away. Let's wait till morning." He suggests.

"Ok, goodnight Peeta."

"Goodnight Katniss. Sweet dreams."


	4. Chapter 4

The next morning there is nothing. No new memories. I can't shake the feeling of being annoyed and I don't know why? There was a time where I thought maybe Peeta and I could be more but that time had passed and obviously the time when he thought the same had passed too. It really was bothering me that he hadn't felt anything at all? He never even said anything, just no new memories. I was sure it would have worked. But obviously the capital took all those feelings away. It must be spending all this time together that has made me feel this way. I will just put it down to that.

He begins to notice my frustration the next day and asks: "What's going on? You've been acting strange since yesterday."

Not knowing how to reply I just shrug and say: "I'm fine."

"I know you're not Katniss. Is it about the kiss? I'm sorry if it made things awkward. I didn't mean to." He tries to explain but he's got it all wrong.

"I didn't make things awkward at all." I'm trying not to say too much.

"Then why are you acting strange?" he asks.

I can't tell him why. He can't know. It might ruin our new found friendship and I wouldn't be able to stand letting him get away again. Especially when he is starting to regain his memories?

"Katniss, please. What's going on?" he begs.

"I was just a bit disappointed that none of your memories came back. Okay?" I reply.

"Oh, okay then. It's going to take some time until they do Katniss? They injected a lot of venom into me it will take a while until I'm back to normal. Believe me, I want to get back to my old self more than anything but I don't know if I will ever be the exact same Peeta."

With this my world comes crashing down. Even though there wasn't much left to fall, to think that Peeta could possibly never be the same is heart breaking.

"So there is a chance you will never regain all of your memories or feelings?" I ask hoping the answer is no.

He replies with the answer I was not at all hoping for: "Yes, that's very possible."

"So you don't feel at all the same as you did before they hijacked you?" I demand, tears flooding my eyes.

"Only for somethings. Like my friendship with Haymitch but as you know that took me a while and for other stuff too." He says back, staying completely calm.

I feel like I've been punched in the gut. How could he say, of all things, his friendship with Haymitch.

"So what is the point in you even being here, in this house? Because you obviously don't feel anything towards me anymore." I shout back, but as soon as the words leave my mouth I regret them.

"How can you say that Katniss, after everything we have been through together? He is shouting too now."Snow might have been able to mask how I felt but the feelings have always been there, they were just mixed up." He stops shouting and says softly: "Why do you think I've been spending every minute I can with you since I got back? I love you Katniss."

"Then why of all things to mention, when I ask you about feelings, do you mention Haymitch?!" I retort.

"Because I figured you already knew how I felt about you?!"

This is all the confirmation I need. Finally we make sense. I walk slowly towards him. He seems confused.

"What is it?" he says, not expecting what I do next.

I reach him. I rest my head against his chest for a moment, listening to his heartbeat, then I look up at his face and lean in. It's the most perfect moment ever. The first time where we have both felt the exact same way about it each other and it's amazing.

He breaks away. "You love me, real or not real?"

And I reply "Real."

THE END


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